{"article":{"id":120680,"heading":"Santa Ana: Oct. 22ndProtester Faces $1000 Fine","author":"October 22nd organizers","created":"2005-01-01 08:48:24","modified":"2005-01-02 13:01:55","last_modified":"Sun, 02 Jan 2005 20:01:55","article":"

Mexica protestor sentenced $1000. misdemeanor for protesting OCT. 22nd



\t \tAlerta! Alerta! Please forward widely!

On october 22nd, many of you have heard that the small community organized

march against Police Brutality on the impoverished streets of SantaAna was

brutalized with people receiving various levels of injuries, arrests, and

criminal charges.

This week, the remaining arrestees were arraigned in Orange County

Courthouses. Leading up to this arraignment, demosntrators and solidarity

activists have been speaking out at _every_ single Santa Ana City Council

Mtg since O-22 demanding the city take responsibility for their police

force, implement a citizen oversight committee, and consult theri CITY

ATTORNEY to drop the charges. the last city council mtg having nearly 50 in

attendance supporting this issue alone.

APPARENTLY, this has had the opposite affect on the CITY ATTORNEY and

related officials. The first case to be tried is of a young Mexica

protestor, who otherwise works 7 days a week trying to survive with dignitiy

in this \"FREE\" country. She was charged a misdemeanor for using a bullhorn,

a charge that, in normal cases, if police do decide to press charges, would

usually be an infraction if the person does not put it away after their

request (in this case, there was no warning, and directly a misdemeanor).

The judge was very eager to lower this charge to an infraction, and even

adjourned the whole court room to consult the Santa Ana municipal code in

efforts to do so, only to find out that the CITY ATTORNEY had instructed

this be a misdemeanor ONLY charge, with no option for any lowering.

The city attorney has now instructed the \"defendant\" that their office

(prosecutors') are not willing to budge an inch with their charge, and the

only other option they will consider to plead guilty to a $1000 CIVIL

COMPROMISE which will allow the \"defendant\" to not have a criminal

misdemeanor on her record, which, for a hard working, low-wage earning

immigrant to this \"free country\", is very important.

This is also an indicator of how the remaining \"defendants\" who are

-accused- of even higher \"crimes\" will be treated.

Please support with donations and further press release of this story. For

more information, call :

Duane 714-830-8317, or for interviews, call Karla 714-318-5068.

Next City council mtg is this JANUARY 3RD. Please come out and support,

since this tireless group of demonstrators could use some support and

inspiration from fellow anti-racist, anti-fascist activists.

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.october22.org","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Next City council mtg is this JANUARY 3RD. Please come out and support,\r\nsince this tireless group of demonstrators could use some support and\r\ninspiration from fellow anti-racist, anti-fascist activists.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/01\/120680.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}